A born magpie, Darcey Leonard has a lifelong fascination with glittery, sparkly things, style and the history of costume design. Her earliest memories include pouring over Erte drawings. Starting at 13 she apprenticed and managed the costume shop at the local children’s theater. Her interests led her to Los Angeles, where she learned from her burlesque and sideshow peers, as well as from crafting weekly theme parties at her legendary club night, Club Screwball, the finer points of costuming for the ardours of the stage. One of the highlights of her year is crafting for the Mermaid Parade. Darcey believes that the limitations of time and budget are not barriers to coming up with a creative costume design.

Gali Beeri designs knitted headpieces for costume parties. After years of knitting intricate lace, fitted sweaters, and more conventionally wearable items, the magical world of knitted toys and costume whimsy have taken over her imagination and handwork. She is exploring wearable technology and is excited to learn more about adding light elements to her pieces. She blogs about her designs at Lion Brand Yarn Company:http://blog.lionbrand.com/2015/09/14/yarncrafting-costumes-designing-a-winged-superhero/

In 2009, Parsons graduate, Stephanie Hinson, began designing custom dresses for friends. Since then, she has designed commissions for Vivian Girls, Coasting, Ian Svenonius, and Chain & the Gang as well as numerous other indie bands, and DIY performance artists. Although she makes her home in Brooklyn, she continues to mine inspiration from her southern childhood during which her time was spent poring over fashion and music magazines, making clothes for her dolls, stumbling around in nature, and losing herself in the solitary silence of bird-watching.

Costume clinic open craft hours are free of charge and a $5 materials fee is requested if you make a mask.